{"id":62974,"date":"2019-09-17T14:55:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T11:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=62974"},"modified":"2023-04-10T17:56:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T14:56:35","slug":"uniformity-and-forgery-vs-individuality-and-authenticity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/uniformity-and-forgery-vs-individuality-and-authenticity\/","title":{"rendered":"Uniformity And Forgery vs. Individuality And Authenticity"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[868,506,463],"acf":{"old_id":"62974","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36277,"related_cahpter":"309","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The Talmud, Maimonides, the Maharal and Ralph Waldo Emerson agree","content":"

The last chapter of I Kings begins with a profound lesson in the nature of prophecy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahab, the Baal-worshipping King of Israel has joined forces with Jehoshaphat, the God-fearing king of Judah to make war on the king of Aram.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jehoshaphat asks Ahab to inquire of the Lord about their prospects for success. The latter gathers together a band of 400 prophets who predict victory for Judah and Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Jehoshaphat smells a rat and requests a second prophetic opinion. Ahab reluctantly produces Micaiah son of Imlah, explaining his reticence thus: \u201cI hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me.\u201d (v.8) Michaiah duly predicts Israel\u2019s defeat and, and so it turns out.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did Jehoshaphat know that the 400 prophets were suspect? The Talmud (Sanhedrin 89a) answers: <\/span><\/p>\n

Jehoshaphat said to Ahab: This is the tradition that I received from the house of the father of my father, the house of David: A prophetic vision relating to the same subject matter may appear to several prophets, but two prophets do not prophesy using the same style of expression.<\/span><\/p>\n

God may send the same message to more than one prophet but will not send it in the same way. Identical formulations are evidence of forgery.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Maharal of Prague in his <\/span>Hiddushei Aggadot<\/span><\/em> explains that if the prophets come out with precisely the same language it shows they have colluded in manufacturing their message (in the same way two students writing the same answers verbatim on a test is evidence of cheating.)<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, the Talmud may be teaching us that there is something uniquely personal to the process and outcome of prophecy. It is, as Maimonides teaches in the Guide for the Perplexed, an outcome of a prophet\u2019s struggle for spiritual purity and intellectual clarity, and thus will never strike too prophets in identical ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

The great American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson expressed the nature of spiritual inspiration in terms similar to the Talmud\u2019s:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYet see what strong intellects dare not yet hear God himself, unless he speaks the phraseology of I know not what David, or Jeremiah, or Paul\u2026We are like children who repeat by rote the sentences of grandames and tutors\u2026painfully recollecting the exact words they spoke\u2026 When they come into the point of view which those had who uttered these sayings, they understand them, and are willing to let the words go; for, at any time, they can use words as good when occasion comes. If we live truly, we shall see truly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Emerson stakes out the uniqueness of genuine inspiration. As long as one uses other men\u2019s language it is a sign that we do not \u201chear God himself.\u201d If one rises to their level and perceives the truths they beheld, one may let go of their style of expression and use one\u2019s own words.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":62975,"id":62975,"title":"1kings22-rambam emerson","filename":"1kings22-rambam-emerson.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings22-rambam-emerson.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/uniformity-and-forgery-vs-individuality-and-authenticity\/1kings22-rambam-emerson\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings22-rambam-emerson","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":62974,"date":"2019-09-17 11:55:37","modified":"2019-09-17 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